Title: Proverbs 3
By: Todd Bevins
Intro
Open your bibles to Proverbs chapter 3, continuing there, picking up from this morning, where we left off. While you are finding your place there, we will mention a few things we talked about this morning. No doubt, we know that Solomon is mentioning here, giving us some words of wisdom. Talking about one of the most important things is no doubt, the Word of God, and keeping His Word. It is more than just hearing it, but keeping it. We know that again, it will add to our days, but it brings peace with God, and the peace of God. Along with that we know that one of the characteristics that flows from someone who embraces the Word of God is kindness; someone that is committed who will show acts of kindness in their life. Their life will be that of kindness. Again, to the point that others will see it and it is written upon the tables of our heart. Through all of that we find out that we find favor and good understanding in the sight of God. Also, in man, we gain a good reputation. There is no better way in this world to gain a good reputation than to be someone that is trustworthy and honest. I know that is rejected by the world’s theology and the world’s way of thinking. However, if one really wants a good reputation, my advice would be to be truthful, be honest at all times.
One of things I love the most, one of the stories that I love the most about my father that has encouraged me throughout many of my days. I can remember being all the way in Pomeroy, Gallipolis. I was in a Gavin Power Plant doing some work there. One of the guys from another contractor came up and he had seen my last name on my hardhat. He said, “Your dad isn’t ‘pup’ is it?” That was his nickname at the plant. They called him pup, just because he could bark like a dog. I don’t know. (Congregation laughing) Anyways, like an old coon dog. He said, “Keith Bevins.” I said, “Yeah.” He went on talking about my dad. He said, “Man, your dad is a great, great guy.” That was just one of different scenarios and things. Dad had always told me. Man is only as good as his word. I thought, “Man!” I have clung to that for years. It has brought a lot of good things in my life. It brings about a good reputation. Be honest. Be trustworthy. That is what a Christian should be.
We talked about along with that, to not trust within ourselves, but we trust the Lord. We don’t rely on ourselves or depend on ourselves. We lean on Him. We lean on Him not just for one thing. We lean on Him for everything. We don’t lean on Him just at different times. We lean on Him at all times, for all things. We are to lean and trust in Him. We acknowledge His ways. Why is that? He will direct our path. He will direct our footsteps. He knows where we need to be and when we need to be there. We also talked about along with that, for one that fears and reverences the Lord, respects again, the Lord.
Proverbs 3:7&8
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
That is when we draw nigh unto the Lord, unto His side, and seek His wisdom and His guidance and follow Him, embrace His Word; then it becomes active in our heart and lives. No doubt, we shun evil, and depart from evil and get away from it. We want no part of that. That is where we get our strength. That is where we get our encouragement is through all of that. He is our uplift and encouragement to go on day after day in a very sinful and sick world. Moving on past that, he tells us here:
Proverbs 3:9
9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase:
Honor God
I wrote down for myself as a question, “How can I honor God?” Honor meaning here in this place, meaning this. How can I respect? How can I value? How can I along with that acknowledge God as the source of our wealth? How can I do that? He tells us plainly here in this verse. He says that we are to honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best parts of everything you produce. In other words, with the very first fruits we come up with today; we look at it with our tithing. We know in those days we know the first fruits of the crops they would bring unto the Lord. Why is that? You bring the very best. There are some things along with that. There are three things about giving that is important to know. I want you to think about this just for a moment.
Giving unto the Lord
By giving unto the Lord, we are demonstrating that we trust God to provide all of our needs. Just as ancient farmers would set aside the first part of their harvest for God; and they would dependent upon God and say, “Lord, by doing this, I trust you, Lord completely.” There have been times, and I am sure we all have been there where we had more month than we had money, in the words of Brian Carmon. Regardless, as we give unto the Lord, do you know what He does? We are saying, Lord, I trust you more than anything. Everything I have belongs to you. Therefore, I honor you. I reverence you. I respect you. I value you more than anything else. Because I know this. I know you will take care of me. In doing that we give unto to the Lord. We give freely. We give—again, as you read the scriptures, hilariously is really what it means, when we say, we are giving unto the Lord. We that with great joy. We do it with great pleasure. We do it with great honor. As we do that, we are trusting the Lord, that He is going to provide all that we need. We are saying through that I trust you, Lord.
Giving is an Act of Worship
Here is another thing. By giving, it is an act of worship. By giving the first and the best; we acknowledge that everything we have is a gift from God. Our giving is an act of worship in saying, thank you, Lord, for everything we have got. Thank you for what I have. Thank you for the income we have had this week or for the last few weeks, for this month. Thank you, Lord, for this food you have given us, or our crops, or whatever it may be. The point that I am getting at is this. We are saying, Lord, we thank you for everything we have. We appreciate God, all that you have done, and realize that it is not through our own power, or through our own strength. It is through you.
Trust and Faith
Here is the next one. We are saying, we trust Him, and we have faith in Him. It shows faith in God’s promises that He will bless us in return making Him central in our decisions about money, time, and resources. It is saying, Lord, I trust in your promises that you will bless us in return. It doesn’t mean—a lot of people; you may have heard me say this before. I have heard folks say it before. If you give because it gives, it won’t give. If you give because it pays, it won’t pay. I think that is how they said it. You say what do you mean by that? I have to give them my tithe, if I don’t—I got to give this or that then if I do that then I can expect so much from the Lord. Well, it doesn’t work that way. That is not how it works. We give of our time, finances, or whatever the Lord leads us to give and we do that joyfully. God loves a joyful—that is what I was getting at earlier. It had left my mind. It means hilarious, meaning jolly. It is a pleasure, it is an honor to give. It is an honor to give of one’s time. It is an honor to give my time into the studies of the Word of God. It is an honor to give not only my time for that, but to be here and to be able to worship God with you. It is an honor to be able to give of our money, of our finances that God has blessed us with. We realize, we recognize saying, Lord, I realize every single thing I have is because of you and you alone. God, I thank you for that and praise you for that. That is why we give. We don’t give of any of those things, in response; you have heard me say this before. I have worked with fellows before that said, “I don’t really want to do this or that. If I do this or I do that; then they will expect me to do this, or they will expect me to do that. That is kind of like what I am talking about. Sometimes people think that God works that way. However, God does not work that way. God wants us to live our lives in the sense that everything I do, I do because I love Him. I love Him because I look at what He did for me at the cross of Calvary. That love moves me, and it drives me to do what I do; and you to do what you do as well.
Moving on past that. What is the result? What can we expect by honoring God, by giving of our time, our tithes, our money and so forth; or whatever it may be that God leads us to do. They are the first fruits of our increase. Verse 10 tells us this:
Proverbs 3:10
10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
Now, one might say, “Praise the Lord! I will just have all kinds of money and all kinds of stuff.” I wouldn’t count on that. I will say this. I like how the NLT puts it.
Proverbs 3:10 (NLT)
10 Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.
Giving to God
What does that mean? It signifies that giving God the first and the best of what we have is an act of trusting His ability to provide abundantly for all our needs. That’s it. That’s the key. It is saying that…by doing this; here is the result. I know that God will meet all of my needs. You have heard me say this before, I will say it again. “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor seed begging bread.” Now, I find that to be true in my own personal life. As you probably like myself have gone through periods and times of job loss, where money is not what you had hoped for it to be. As I said earlier, we have more month than we have money. We have more bills than you have money. Yet, you wonder how that it going to work out. Sometimes, it is just certain things you need. Sometimes, it is our own fault; whatever it may be. The necessities of life that I have need of; God has never failed to provide them. God has never failed to take care of me nor provide for me those very things I need. That is why we do what we do. We give unto to the Lord. Why we are saying, Lord, I trust you that you are going to provide exactly what I need. The verse teaches us that true blessings come from trusting God’s provision, rather than relying on one’s own understanding… It is saying again, Lord, I trust you more than I trust myself. I trust that God, you are going to allow things to work out as you see fit. You will take care of our needs when I cannot do it on my own. I cannot do it on my own strength.
Responding to Discipline
Now, I like the next question that I have is this. How are we to respond to the Lord’s discipline and to His correction? I don’t know that I can ever recall or remember a time that, and when I use the terminology “get your hind end busted” I don’t remember—I mean that seriously. I have got it plenty of times. I don’t know that I ever enjoyed that. I don’t remember looking back and saying, “Oh, I really enjoyed that one. Dad got me good on that one. That was good.” No. I don’t remember that. So, there is never a time that we really enjoy it. We know this. It is necessary. I can look back over my life and I can say; had that not have happened; had I not had parents that showed disciplinary action then I could say this. It is hard to tell what I would have become. So, I am thankful for that.
That is what the next few verses, we will speak about here.
Proverbs 3:11-13
11 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction:
12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
It is talking about some very wise things. Let’s read it like this. My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline and don’t upset when He corrects you. I think that is wonderful advice. That is good advice and that is good wisdom. Why? We are gong to talk about for a moment or two. When the Lord does those things, it shows that He cares about us. It shows that He loves us. There have been many different times in my earlier Christian Walk knowing this to be true. Things would happen, and I might do something then I would feel bad. My dad or someone might come along and tell me, “Listen. Do you know what? Don’t feel so bad about that. Do you know why? That’s a good thing. Do you know why? The Lord is disciplining you for what you have done. Praise Him for that. Thank Him for that.” Through that we know He loves us. He cares about us. We know that I am His child. Why? I can’t go out here and willingly disobey Him and live a life of my own, of however I choose. If I can do that and there is not…I feel no repercussions of that. The Spirit of God doesn’t deal with me on that. I would have to say that you are in a very bad situation. I am glad for the Spirit of God who lets us know that we are His child. That is through discipling us and correcting us and showing us when we are wrong. Why not? Why not get upset? Why not be aggravated? Many of times, in disciplining the boys; they would always seem to never understand and be upset. But we don’t want to do that.
Proverbs 3:12
12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
The Lord corrects those He loves as a father the son he delights. Let’s talk about that just for a moment. When the Lord corrects those that, He loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. I would have to say…today’s society thinks that through that disciplinary action, and discipling their children that they are being harsh, or cruel. I am saying if you don’t then you really don’t love them. When you love them then you love them enough that you correct them when they are wrong. You correct them when they are doing things that would be harmful to them. Things that will harm someone else.
These verses urge believers not to despise the rejection of God’s chastening. I like this what one theologian writes. Correction is a sign of love (number 1) Did you ever think about the fact that God’s disciplinary action is a sign of His love for you and me. That is how much He loves us. You say, “I don’t quite get that.” Listen to this. This discipline is presented not as a punishment for condemnation, but as evidence of God’s love for those He has chosen. It is the evidence that God loves you and me. Why? Because He does not want to see us getting involved or going in a direction that is going to be harmful to us or anybody else. He cares about us that much.
When does He do that? If you are like me, for most kids; you finally get to a place where you say, you change your disciplinary action and say it is maybe a little difficult or hard to take a 17- or 18-year-old child and bend them over your knee and spank their hind end. Therefore, you find a different way to handle that.
As we get older in our walk with the Lord, the Lord has ways of getting our attention. He has ways of dealing with us. For my life and your life, that is going to be different. Here is the good part about it. Regardless of how that disciplinary action takes place, and regardless of how God chooses to do that; the great thing of it is that He never stops doing it. There never comes a point or a time that God says, okay, my love has reached its max now. I have done all I can do. Therefore, I am no longer going to deal and focus on your life in the areas that you are going and shouldn’t be going, and correct you in them. God loves us so much that He cares about us, even to this very day; God deals with us and corrects us when we are wrong. It has been twenty-some years we have been walking with Him. Do you know what? I know He will do that until I go home and be with Him.
A Father’s Love
Here is the next thing about this verse that this theologian writes, is a father’s love. The analogy of a father disciplining his son highlights the personal, intimate, and loving nature of God’s correction.
As I thought on that a little while, I remembered this. I adapted this from my dad. I got it from him. Dad had no problem—I know that parents will always say that there is never a time that you go in and enjoy correcting your children. I know he didn’t. However, it sure didn’t seem like when I was a kid that it bothered him a whole lot. I remember this most of my father. That is this. I never got a whipping or in trouble that I didn’t know what I was in trouble for. As we look at it, God takes no pleasure in that. I will say this. When I am not doing what I should be doing, He does not correct me without me knowing what is going on. God allows me, God corrects me and lets me know, hey, you are not thinking as you should be thinking. You are not going to the direction you should be going. You are not doing what you should be doing. Or, you are doing what you should not be doing. There are things like that. You say, why do you say that like that? It is because what it does; it shows the intimate relationship between the father and the son. My dad loves me and continues to love me into this day. He cared about me so much that he wanted me understand why I was in trouble. He wanted me to understand what I had done. Our heavenly Father is much greater than that. He wants us to know, why is that? So, we don’t do that again. So, we can correct that. Why? God is shaping our lives. What is He shaping it? He is shaping to be conformed to the image of His dear Son. One of these days, we are going to be just like Him. Each day that goes by, as He works in our lives; He is working in us, and doing a work in us to make us more like Him every day of our lives. Every day that goes by, He wants us to be more like Him. What is that? What brings that about? What brings that about is an intimate close relationship with our Heavenly Father. He loves us that much.
What is the purpose of the correction? As we already said, to guide believers towards righteousness and maturity; helping them to become more like Christ. It is to bring us to a place that we are more like Him. I don’t know about you, but don’t know that we could ever love enough, we could ever be kind enough, we could ever be forgiving enough, or we could ever reach out enough. There will never come a time that we will be as much, or we will reach that point that we will say, I am as good as I am going to get. I am as best as I could possibly be—like Christ. There is never a point that we will ever reach that here on earth. That being the case, God continues the work in our lives. I love Him for that. Don’t you?
Humility
Humility—I like this last part. Humility is the key. The passage encourages humility in receiving correction. Recognizing this. It is for our ultimate good and our spiritual well-being. The humility is the key; saying, God, I appreciate the fact that you would show me the error of my way. Also, that you would love me so much that you would want me to understand that this direction that I am going is not right. The way that I am thinking is not correct. There have been many things more so in the last six years, but also along with that, down through time, and these twenty-some years that I have walked with the Lord, as I look back; “Lord, I thank you that you have shown me these things. I thank you that you have corrected me in times that I was going a direction where I did not realize what I was doing or how harmful it was going to be in my life. God, you directed me. You spoke to me. You dealt with my heart. You corrected my way of thinking. You corrected the direction I was going. You have helped me to do that.” When I think about those things, I realize in doing that…God has brought us to a place that we love more than we used to love before.
We forgive. It is easier to forgive today than it was the day I got saved. It is easier and there is a greater desire to reach out and help others today than the day I got saved. Why? There has been a lot of disciplinary action and correction. There has been a lot of work going on in my life. It has been going on for twenty-some years. How long will it go on? It will continue until I go home. The same is true in mine and your life. I guarantee if you look back over your life, you will understand and realize that there have been a lot of things that God has helped us with. He has changed our way of thinking about. He has corrected us about. We have been to the old woodshed, we might say, a time or two. It wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t good. There are times I had to apologize that absolutely killed me. I hated the fact that I let something happen. Yet, I had to go apologize. If that is the case, make the apology and move on. If there is a situation like that, deal with it and go on. Why? Because God is going to work it out for the good in our lives. We will be more like Him. Do you know what I did learn? When I was through doing that, it did help me to do this. It helped me to be more careful and think a little harder before I spoke. Why is that? Because I realized that it is a whole lot easier to ask the Lord to forgive you and help you than to have to go and humble yourself before somebody and try to explain. I’m so sorry for my behavior, that way I talked, or what I said. The Lord is good in all of that. Isn’t He?
Proverbs 3:13-14
13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
14 For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
Wisdom—the wisdom of this world? No. The wisdom of God is more precious, it is more valuable than silver, gold, fine gold, in all the money in all the world, even Fort Knox…the wisdom of God is more valuable than all of that. We will talk about that Wednesday night.
Come and Pray